Syllabus: MOBILE MEDIA AND APPS

Fall 2016

Mato Brautovic, Ph.D. Adjunct Professor

College of Journalism and Communication

University of Florida

mbrautovic@ufl.edu

Virtual Office Hours by appointment via Skype

Course description

Mobile phones are most widespread piece of technology (more than 75% of world has access to

them). People are using them 24/7 and more and more are using smartphones. Media

companies are expanding their business in area of mobile devices & apps. Leading operating

system is Android (Android has a heady 82,8 percent of world smartphone market share).

In this course, students will review developments of mobile devices and learn how to use these

tools in the creation and distribution of news. Furthermore, students will learn how to put

together android app and build news business around it.

Student goals for the course:

Students who finish Mobile Media and App course should be able to:

Use mobile phones for shooting, editing and reporting

Understand how mobile phones are transforming the media business

Have working knowledge of MIT App Inventor 2

Produce simple apps for Android platform

Understand mobile business and business models,

Be beginner entrepreneurs in mobile industry.

The course is taught 100% online, with a mixture of readings, tutorials, discussions, and

exercises. The online lectures and tutorials are intended to promote general knowledge of

multimedia practices and tools. The discussions and exercises are to reinforce concepts

presented and to test your ability to apply the concepts to actual problems. All course sessions,

office hours and other material will be available to you online only-- there are no class meetings

or proctored exams for this course.

Prerequisites

Computer and operating system: Macintosh (with Intel processor): Mac OS X 10.5 or higher;

Windows: Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7; GNU/Linux: Ubuntu 8 or higher, Debian 5

or higher

Smatrphone which can record audio clips, shoot videos and capture photos.

Outline

Modules will be released weekly, including discussions or assignments within the appropriate

learning modules. In order to give you a sense of what you will be learning in this course, here is

a list of modules with general information about each:

Intro to cellphones, smartphones and tablets

Mobile media and news industry

Mobile newsgathering

Introduction to MIT App inventor 2

My first app / Media

Game apps

Geo location apps

User-generated apps

Web enabled apps

Debugging

Usability of apps

Planning and designing apps

Packaging and publishing on Google market

Future

Assignments and grading:

Course Points

The course consists of 14 modules, each on a different topic. Each module contains some combination of discussions and assignments, all of which must be completed by the due date for the entire module.

Discussion 30 points each, 6 in all, will drop the lowest 150 points

Assignment 50 points each, 11 in all, will drop the two lowest

450 points

TOTAL POINTS: 600 points

Grading Individual Assignments

We will grade the discussion posts based on the throughness and thoughtfulness of your responses. Remember to keep within any word limits given in the individual discussion assignments.

The instuctor will grade your lab assignments. Rememer that this is a large course and some of the labs will take quite a while to grade. I will try my best to have assignments graded within one week of submission, but I cannot guarantee this. DO NOT send me e-mails asking when a grade will be posted-- it will only annoy me! Please help keep your instructors happy and sane... it benefits everyone!

Working Together

You are welcome to work with a group of friends or colleagues on your discussions, and assignments for this class. In fact, you will probably find it both enjoyable and productive to do so. Keep in mind, however, that everyone must do original work for the course. There will be no sharing of media files! Feel free to use the Water Cooler discussion board to find study buddies, arrange group study sessions, and more.

Final Course Grades

You can calculate your grade at any time in the course by adding up the points you have already received and calculating what percentage of possible points it is. For your final grade, I will drop the lowest discussion and the two lowest assignment grades, and calculate the total points received. Final grades will be determined as follows:

A 94-100% 564 - 600 points

A- 90-93.99% 540 - 563 points

B+ 86-89.99% 516 - 539 points

B 83-85.99% 498 - 515 points

B- 80-82.99% 480 - 497 points

C+ 76-79.99% 456 - 479 points

C 73-75.99% 438 - 455 points

C- 70-72.99% 420 - 437 points

D+ 66-69.99% 396 - 419 points

D 63-65.99% 378 - 395 points

D- 60-62.99% 360 - 377 points

E 59.99% or below 359 points or less

Critical dates

Module Released at 5

PM

Assignments

due by 11:55

PM

List of Assignments

Course Handbook 8/22/2016 - -

Module 1 8/29/2016 9/6/2016 Lab 1: QR codes; Practice

Discussion

Module 2 9/6/2016 9/12/2016 Lab 2: News Apps; Discussion 1:

Going mobile

Module 3 9/12/2016 9/19/2016 Lab 3: Video; Discussion 2:

Reporting Apps

Module 4 9/19/2016 9/26/2016 Lab 4: MIT App Inventor

Module 5 9/26/2016 10/3/2016 Lab 5: Personalizing Virtual Pet

Module 6 10/3/2016 10/10/2016 Lab 6: PaintPot

Module 7 10/10/2016 10/17/2016 Lab 7: Virtual Map

Module 8 10/17/2016 10/24/2016 Lab 8: UserCamera

Module 9 10/24/2016 10/31/2016 Lab 9: StockQuotes

Module 10 10/31/2016 11/7/2016 Discussion 3: Debugging

Module 11 11/7/2016 11/14/2016 Discussion 4: Usability

Module 12 11/14/2016 11/21/2016 Lab 10: Wireframe; Discussion 5:

Planning

Module 13 11/21/2016 12/5/2016 Lab 11: Application Information

Module 14 11/21/2016 12/7/2016 Discussion 6: Future

Information on current UF grading policies for assigning grade points.

https://catalog.ufl.edu/ugrad/current/regulations/info/grades.aspx

The Honor Code

By enrolling in this course student agree to follow the UF Honor Code:

We, the members of the University of Florida community, pledge to hold ourselves and our

peers to the highest standards of honesty and integrity. On all work submitted for credit by

students at the University of Florida, the following pledge is either required or implied: "On my

honor, I have neither given nor received unauthorized aid in doing this assignment."

For more information, please see the Student Honor Code.

http://www.dso.ufl.edu/judicial/honorcode.php

Students with Disabilities

If you are a student with a disability and would like to request disability-related

accommodations, you are encouraged to contact the Disability Resource Center as early in the

semester as possible. The Disability Resource Center is located in 001 Building 0020 (Reid Hall).

Their phone number is 392-8565.

Once you have a Letter of Accommodation, please make an appointment with me (by sending

an e-mail through the E-Learning Mail system) so that we can go over the letter and discuss

your accommodations in the course.

Online evaluation

Students are expected to provide feedback on the quality of instruction in this course based on

10 criteria. These evaluations are conducted online at https://evaluations.ufl.edu. Evaluations

are typically open during the last two or three weeks of the semester, but students will be given

specific times when they are open. Summary results of these assessments are available to

students at https://evaluations.ufl.edu/results.“